Stop Muslim pogrom in CAR: Human Rights Watch

"We are in a moment where immediate action is needed to stop the killings," Peter Bouckaert, emergencies coordinator at Human Rights Watch, said on Saturday.
 
Muslims make up about 15 percent of the African Republic's 4.6 million citizens. Crowds of Christians have reportedly slaughtered thousands of Muslims and hundreds of thousands have fled the country.
 
Bouckaert called for a full-fledged United Nations peacekeeping mission to immediately stop the killings. "Otherwise the future of the Muslim community of this country will be gone."
 
"Entire neighborhoods are being emptied of Muslims. Their presence is being erased from this city," Bouckaert on Friday.
 
"Their mosques are being demolished brick by brick," he said, adding he had seen only one mosque remained out of eight in one neighborhood of the capital Bangui.
 
    "There are some who don't want Muslims in this country," CAR Prime Minister Andre Nzapayeke said on local radio on Saturday. "But when the Muslims have left the country, what happens next? The Protestants will throw out the Catholics, and then the Baptists against the Evangelists, and finally the animists? It is time we regain control and stop ourselves from plunging into an abyss."
 
The International Criminal Court says it has launched a preliminary investigation into war crimes in the CAR.
 
In a statement issued on Friday, the Hague-based tribunal made the announcement to investigate the unrest that has plagued the African nation for over a year.
 
"The plight of civilians in CAR since September 2012 has gone from bad to worse," the court said.
 
"My office has reviewed many reports detailing acts of extreme brutality... and allegations of serious crimes being committed," said Fatou Bensouda, the ICC chief prosecutor.
 
"I have therefore decided to open a preliminary investigation into this... situation," she stated.